Employee Engagement & Kaizen

In your workplace, have you heard the phrase “Employee Engagement” and the word “Kaizen”? It is true that there are various definitions of “Employee Engagement” in each different organization. And “Kaizen” is originally a Japanese word that means continuous (quality) improvement.

Employee engagement was originally defined and advocated by Dr. William Kahn, in 1990. Dr. William Kahn is a Boston University professor of Psychology for organizational behavior. In rough summary, employee engagement is the state of deeply linked and deeply connected between what one does and who one is. There are three major components for that state: Emotion (passion), Physical (energy) and Cognitive (focus).

This definition of employee engagement seems to be somewhat academic and too general in terms of actual workplace application and practices. I think Japanese kaizen concepts and tools could be the actual bridge that connects the theory of employee engagement and workplace application of this theory.

When I first encountered the employee engagement theory, I immediately recognized that it seemed to be a very close concept to kaizen practices. So my new journey was launched. This journey has become my passion of researching and studying the relationship between employee engagement and kaizen. My newest workshop at Cascade Employers Association is the first opportunity here in Salem, to share my thoughts and studies with an American audience.

In Japan we are not aware of the phrase of employee engagement; however, most business people are very familiar with that theory through the kaizen concept in the workplace, particularly throughout the manufacturing industries. In the Toyota Production System (TPS) the kaizen concept has been established for a long time. TPS also has been reinforced by American statistician, Dr. Edward Deming. Dr. Deming is well-known for his PDCA (Plan, Do, Check & Act) Cycle.

I hope you will be excited about hearing the latest link between the US employee engagement theory and the long held work application of Kaizen in Japan. These two concepts are perfectly matched and have an intriguing alignment that I think you will be interested in hearing about. I am very excited about this opportunity to share my experience, research and passion with the members and the general audience of Cascade Employers Association. This workshop is scheduled on Thursday, September 15, 2011 from 8:30AM to 10:30AM at Cascade Employer Association facility in Salem, OR.

I hope you are interested in this topic and will plan to come to the workshop on September 15. I am looking forward to seeing you soon and sharing with you my ideas and research in this fascinating area of Human Resources and beyond.

Ken Sakai
President & CEO
Pacific Dreams, Inc.

Ken Sakai is the owner and business consultant for Pacific Dreams, Inc. in Wilsonville, OR. We have been a business consulting firm since 1996 between the USA and Japan.